DCU Comic Book Reviews

HAWKGIRL #58

...and Execution! (...doesn't mean they're not out to get you)

January 2007

Written by Walter Simonson

Pencils by Joe Bennett

Inks by Joe Bennett

Cover by Howard Chaykin

Synopsis

At Willowbrook Sanctuary, a former escaped Thanagarian criminal is presiding over a trial for Hawkgirl, who is accused of high treason against Thanagar in the war with Rann.  Hawkgirl is found guilty and will be executed the following dawn.  Later, Hawkgirl telepathically orders her nth metal belt and wings to fly away and find help.  Several hours later, Danny Evans arrives, but he is instantly captured by the Thanagarian.  At dawn, Hawkgirl is hung by the neck.  The Thanagarian criminal then decides to kill Danny as collateral damage.  However, thanks to some residual effects of the nth metal, Hawkgirl is able to levitate long enough to escape the noose, save Danny, and then defeat the Thanagarian criminal.

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

This was not a bad little two-part story that somewhat neatly tells a complete story yet at the same time seems to be 44 pages of mostly nothing. In essence, these two issues featured a lot of decompression or perhaps it needed to be compressed.  One or the other.  It just seems like that there was a lot of material that provided little to the main story.  Heck, there are even two black boxes of nothing.  I am not even sure the Thanagarian criminal was ever mentioned by name.  And how did he get to Earth?  I suppose it does not matter, but it shows just how unimportant the trial really was to the plot.  Ultimately, I suppose this story was designed to introduce two ideas:  the concept that Hawkgirl has absorbed some of the nth metal and somebody (Blackfire perhaps) has a grudge against Hawkgirl.   

I get the sense that this is the opening salvo to a much larger storyline (perhaps explaining, finally where Hawkman has gone) featuring Blackfire and the rest of the Thanagarian criminals.  Remember, in the first part of this two-parter, a number of criminals were set free, all with specific jobs to perform.  If this wasn’t a set up for something bigger, then that entire section was wasted space. 

Is Hawkgirl’s ability to control her wings and belt remotely a new concept or has she done this in the best?  Has Hawkman ever done that?

 

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